Words from a hat

Words from a Hat

To add an extra creative nudge in our Workday Comic project, we had each participant draw a word from a hat that originally held 100 slips of paper with semi-random words or terms. This wasn't something our rules required. It's just something we chose to do. One person drew three words for volume 1 (which worked so well for him that for volume 2 everyone chose to draw two or more). One participant who had to work from a different location chose a number between 1 and 100, and then received the corresponding word from this list. Our artists and writers were free to incorporate these words as images, text, theme, whatever struck their fancy whether literally or figuratively, prominently or peripherally. An artist who arrived without a writer and with no story in mind for volume 1 built his entire story by starting with the term he drew for volume one ("power tool").

Each word that got used for volume 1 was marked out and replaced by suggestions from volume 2 contributors. So far, we have generally resisted the impulse to make the list too goofy or weird in case that might mess up someone's serious story. The person who sadistically suggested what might have been the weirdest one so far actually wound up drawing that term himself and got stuck having to fit it into his own story.

tasty	crow
Gene Hackman	balls
feudalism	helmet
Booker T.	circumnavigation
converse	love
purple	chocolate
~~ball (Tommy vol. 2)~~	~~Shanghai (Nicole workshop)~~
chain	wooden shoes
dog	rusty
burn	reflection
leaf	Venus flytrap
stick figure	knot
leak	puppet
~~bow (Alex vol. 2)~~	cap
dunk	garden
peanut butter	wig
family portrait	baby
allowance	shaving
strap	~~dustpan (Robert vol. 2)~~
spare	~~gravy (Thomas - workshop)~~
~~walker (Alex vol. 1)~~	~~nickel (Amanda - workshop)~~
wonders	~~turban (Nick vol. 1)~~
~~pyramid (Tom vol. 1)~~	~~exit (Nick vol. 2)~~
sail	lunch
pound	bent
shock	~~wave (Amanda vol. 2)~~
~~gibbon (Robert vol. 2)~~	long
ribbon	~~sink (Lisa vol. 2)~~
box	rung
~~fort (Alex vol. 1)~~	lop (Lisa vol. 2)
king	scum
nine	sour
lime	club
~~lurch (Alex vol. 2)~~	A-team
mug	robe
scratch	tangled
plunge	doughnut hole
~~seething (Marko - workshop)~~	~~ants (Robert vol. 2)~~
maracas	~~spatula (Tommy - workshop)~~
pillow	yoyo
~~clock (Lisa vol. 2)~~	flowers
~~Friday night (used vol. 1)~~	~~broken glass (Justin & Mark vol. 1)~~
~~birthday (Nicole vol. 1)~~	~~power tool (Bob vol. 1)~~
rice	stain
~~can of beans (Amanda vol. 2)~~	pile
camera	~~wobbly (Greg F. - workshop)~~
fence	hunch
heaven	scrape
suspenders	bob
pine tree	stethoscope
juggle	ice
bowling pin	drum
wart	wheel
~~smoke (Alex vol. 1)~~	~~bag of hammers (Nick vol. 2)~~
~~donkey (Nick - workshop)~~	f`eet`
Spandex (Mark vol. 2)	`coffee`
centurion	f`ire`
spigot	ex`tol`
shoestring	~~t`eenagers (Tommy vol. 2)`~~
pencil lead	nugget
kung fu	mustard
toenail clippings	mailbox
signature - (Josh C. workshop)	fluffy bunny (Justin W. - workshop)
rotten tomato	perpetual kitten (Justin vol. 2)
rotten banana	delete (Lisa vol. 2)
recycle bin	exhaust
herd	stone wall (Nick vol. 2)
kerplunk	tea bag

David Mack drew a word with a strikethrough, a used word accidentally left in the hat, so he didn't integrate any word.
He did suggest a replacement word anyway, though. We know which word he suggested.